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Theme parks that require a lot of walking

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. While you might not typically think of theme parking as a form of exercise, walking around theme parks can burn a surprising amount of calories, and be surprisingly effective exercise; I come out of most theme parks I visit having done over 10,000 steps during the day! But some parks require a greater amount of walking than others; sometimes, you visit a park and think to yourself “wow, walking around this place is a real hike…”. So my question to you today is; which parks necessitate a lot of walking throughout the day? Which parks have you come out of thinking “wow, walking around there was a real workout”?

For me, there’s a very easy answer to this one, and that’s Alton Towers. The park is massive, and the walking isn’t just confined to the park itself; if you don’t want to queue for the monorail, the walk to the park from the car parks is a surprising journey in itself! While I’m not sure on the exact stats, doing the walk between the car parks and the park in both directions would get you solidly halfway towards the Fitbit daily target of 10,000 steps in itself, if not more, and that’s before you even take the park itself into consideration! The park does necessitate a surprising amount of walking; although most of us probably just take Alton Towers’ size and walking level for granted, I can imagine the routes to certain attractions (for instance, the route to Forbidden Valley from most parts of the park) being somewhat of a trek for an inexperienced visitor, particularly if they struggle with walking. And that’s even if you don’t go into the Gardens… these are a whole new level of trek, and while they are lovely to look at, I wouldn’t advise walking through them as a shortcut unless you are an experienced walker who has no issues with steep, uneven terrain or have excellent orienteering skills; I haven’t tried the Gardens in a few years, but whenever I do, I always seem to get lost in there. Every time, without fail, I lose my bearings and get totally lost!

All in all, Alton Towers is definitely a fair old hike as far as parks go, in my opinion; I think a day at Alton when I didn’t take the monorail or Skyride at all might well still hold my Fitbit step count record. I think I got something like 18,000 steps that day, and my legs ached a fair bit the day after!

But what parks require a lot of walking in your view?
 
As you said Matt, I think Alton Towers might reign supreme here.

I would say Europa Park is a bit of a trek too, but you just don't notice it as there's no dead space. I would agree about Efteling too, although it is rather pleasant to walk around that park!
 
An agreeable list already, in terms of the amount of walking you would do in a day these parks also come into mind.
  • Six Flags Magic Mountain
  • Animal Kingdom
  • Six Flags Great Adventure
  • Energylandia
  • Kings Island
  • Port Aventura
  • Busch Gardens Williamsburg
  • Busch Gardens Tampa
  • Shanghai Disneyland
  • Dollywood
  • Silver Dollar City
  • HersheyPark
  • Canada's Wonderland
  • Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
  • Epcot
That's all I can think of for right now.

In terms of walking around from attraction to attraction then Alton Towers and Efteling defiantly take the cake.
 
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The most walking ever must surely be Universal Studios Orlando during Halloween Horror Nights. I’ve said it before, but the walking is insane as you have to walk for 5-15 minutes before and after many of the mazes (before you get to any actual queues). This can stack up to hours of walking in a single evening.

It’s the only place I’ve become fatigued and conscious of how much walking I was doing. Never attempt doing a ‘full evening’ of HHN after a full ‘park day’, it’s way too much.
 
Energylandia is definitely up there too. Large park, but also many long queue lines with no shorter alternatives.

Obviously you can still end up walking a lot in small parks, particularly on quieter days. I've walked 40,000+ steps at Thorpe before, for example. But I know that's against the feel of the thread here.

I guess this is something which you could actually work out too, in some sense. You could create a route for all desired rides, measure the distance between rides, the length of the queue you walk through, etc. There's a few assumptions in there of course, but could give you a rough idea.
 
Bloody Everland in South Korea. That things all built on hills. But because it's South Korea they do have outdoor escalators up and down the paths. But it can still be a trek from one side of the park to the other.
 
I think the thing that bugs me about Alton is that it makes it difficult to get a lot done in a single visit - especially if you want to zig zag. It's not so bad with Europa because there's always something in between.

Efteling to a slightly lesser extent than Alton, although we went during winter so a lot of the usual dead space was full with the winter attractions, ice rink and slides etc...

Port Aventura can be a bit of a slog too.
 
I got a RIDICULOUS step count both days at Disneyland Paris in 2012. We did walk to/from the hotel, but it wasn't THAT far!
 
  • SFMM having to hike up and down the “mountain”. And up. And back down. And back up.
  • I feel @CanobieFan’s vibes: hiking to Bat at Kings Island.
  • SeaWorldseses feel like they, I don’t know, have entirely aquarium in between rides.
  • Certain angles of Hersheypark, especially Lightning Racer
  • Holiday World - “The Voyage” is actually a double entendre.
 
• Cedar point because of how long it is
• honorable mention goes to silver dollar city, not because it's big, but because some paths go on top of terrain-y areas

 
Everything I would have said has been covered.

Alton Towers... I do a LOT of steps at AT. I prefer to walk than take the monorail too. A walk through the gardens / valley really piles on the steps...

Efteling is huge, but if you've been before you don't 'have' to explore it all to enjoy the main rides. (You MUST if it's your first visit!)

Europa Park is large, and the layout can seem a bit odd. Took me a couple of days to get used to it.

And Energylandia... I would have put EL at the top, until they started opening up the shortcuts in their queues and even more recently the 'go around again' gates when it's quiet. But that walk from front entrance to Zadra is still quite gruelling, and even more frustrating the big circle you had to walk in last year to get to Abyssus... Hopefully that is fixed with Sweet Valley opening.
 
I think TusenFryd deserves a little mention. It's not that big, but it's on a hillside, and it has a layout like a complex molecule, with most of the main attractions located at the end of the branches. The section of water rides in particular is awfully far away from anything else. The park can be roughly divided in two halves connected by only one path, and that is at the top of the hill. The route between any two major attractions is likely to involve a lot of walking up and down the hillside.
 
I guess another one you could include would be Liseberg, because of the hill.

It's not that big a park tbf, but if you want to get from one side (atop the hill) to another (bottom of the hill), it's a deceivingly long trek I thought.
 
JoshC. said:
I guess another one you could include would be Liseberg, because of the hill.

It's not that big a park tbf, but if you want to get from one side (atop the hill) to another (bottom of the hill), it's a deceivingly long trek I thought.
Click to expand...
True, and the local teens LOVE E-Stopping the escalators… They were off awaiting reset more than they were on during our days there.
 
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